Orlando Hudson claims to be an outdoorsman from South Carolina, an accomplished hunter who killed his first buck by the time he was 9.

Casey Blake isn’t buying it, not for a second.

“He never stops talking, I don’t know how he can hunt,” Blake joked.

And Hudson’s postgame comments about not knowing he was the first Dodger to hit for the cycle in 39 years until the sellout crowd at Dodger Stadium gave him a standing ovation after his sixth-inning triple in Monday’s 11-1 win over the Giants?

“I don’t know about that (either),” the Dodgers second baseman said.

The way Hudson tells it, and the way you know the legend will grow as he retells it to all his future hunting and fishing partners, is that he had absolutely no idea he was about to complete one of the most difficult offensive feats in baseball until he stood on third base, heard the largest single-game crowd in Dodger Stadium history roar, and saw the graphic on the scoreboard out in left field confirming that Hudson was the first Dodger to hit for the cycle since Wes Parker in 1970.

For once, the yammering, hammering second baseman was speechless.

“I was just looking down the dugout at Mr. (Joe) Torre to see if he’d give me a little look, so I could tip my cap (to the fans),” Hudson said. “I didn’t want to make it all about me, you know. But I didn’t want the fans to think I was a jerk …”

A jerk?

“Yeah,” he said earnestly.

There aren’t many who’ve met the good-natured “O-Dog” – so named because of his constant yapping on the field and in the clubhouse – who’d ever use that word to describe him. Pesky, talkative, hyper, hard-working, those are more apt adjectives.

But then again, the only side of Hudson Dodgers fans have seen the last three years has been as a member of the division-rival Arizona Diamondbacks, trying to break their hearts.

And, it’s not like many of the 57,099 who braved the home-opener traffic were expecting Monday to be about getting to know Hudson.

Every detail of the extended pregame festivities had been choreographed down to the last second. The B-2 bomber fly-over, Vin Scully throwing out the first pitch, fireworks in center field, Manny Ramirez’s grand entrance from the left-field stands.

It wasn’t hard to decode the bullet points the Dodgers wanted to emphasize: Manny’s back, baseball is back, and did we mention Manny’s back?

Then everything went deliciously off-script as only a good baseball game can do.

Hudson reached base in the bottom of the first on a swinging bunt, cranked a home run just over the left-field wall in the third inning, then laced a double to left-center in the fourth inning.

The thing about a cycle though, is that no one really starts thinking it might actually happen until you hit the triple.

Which is why you kind of have to give Hudson the benefit of the doubt when he claims ignorance of his impending feat until after it happened. Or not.

“He was trying to act like he didn’t know. I’m not sure about that,” center fielder Matt Kemp joked. “Everyone in the stadium knew he needed the triple for the cycle.”

As soon as Hudson ripped the ball past Giants’ right fielder Randy Winn, you knew he was going to get it.

The only thing that stood in his way was a head-first slide into third. After two season-ending hand and wrist injuries in the last two seasons, sliding head-first is a bit of a gamble for Hudson.

He holds his breath every time, knowing how quickly things can change. Two years ago he was hitting .294 with 63 RBIs before he tore a ligament in his thumb and missed the Diamondbacks playoff run.

Then last season he worked his way back and was on his way to another solid year when he collided with Atlanta’s Brian McCann while trying to catch and errant throw. His left wrist bent all the way back and with such force that it blew out all the ligaments that hold the wrist together.

It was a freak injury many believed could end his career. It was a wrist injury more common in rodeo cowboys who fall off a horse and use their wrist to break their fall.

Once again, Hudson got back up.

After briefly considering retirement, he was back on the field by November. In December, he was hitting and fielding ground balls.

Teams called to inquire about his availability as much as his ability following the catastrophic injury.

“If I was a GM with the wrist injury I had, I probably would’ve been kind of skeptical also,” Hudson admitted. “So I have to thank the Dodgers, Frank McCourt and Ned Colletti for sticking with me and believing in me.”

In some sense, Hudson got cheated by fate. After winning Gold Gloves and swinging an All-Star-caliber bat, he gets hurt before his team makes a playoff run, and then the summer before he enters a contract year.

To add insult to his injuries, the world economy tanks, baseball owners panic and no one can afford to take an expensive risk on whether he’ll be able to regain his form.

For Hudson, every day he’s alive is a blessing. Every thing else is extra.

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